Barbie Mars-bound? Mattel, NASA team up to make doll Martian explorer

By staff and wire services reports

August 9th, 2013

A new collaboration between NASA and Mattel, the largest toy company in the world, is turning the Red Planet a tad more pink, The Huffington Post reports. “Mars Explorer Barbie,” a new spacesuited version of the iconic fashion doll, officially launched on Monday (Aug. 5), to coincide with the first anniversary of NASA’s Curiosity rover landing on Mars. Mars Explorer Barbie is packaged with a cardboard cutout of the six-wheeled Mars Science Laboratory, decked out in pink. “Ready to add her signature pink splash to the Red Planet,’ [the] Barbie doll is outfitted in a stylish spacesuit with pink reflective accents, helmet, space pack and signature pink space boots,” Mattel wrote in a statement describing the new doll, which as part of the company’s “I Can Be” line of Barbie dolls has the added distinction of the being named the “Career of the Year” for 2013…